The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application Nos. 2000-033685 filed on Feb. 10, 2000 and 2000-389148 filed on Dec. 21, 2000, including the specifications, drawings and abstracts are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an air cleaner having a function of absorbing fuel vapor leaking from an intake system of an internal combustion engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an air cleaner of the aforementioned kind, an art disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. SHO 61-58676, is known. In this related art, an air cleaner element and an adsorption filter for absorbing fuel vapor are disposed in an air cleaner housing. Although the laid-open application does not clearly teach a structure for mounting and retaining the adsorption filter to an inner wall of the housing, it can easily be understood that the adsorption filter and the element are separately mounted to the inner wall of the housing. Based on this structure, it is conceivable that a means, such as firm fitting, welding or the like, is employed for mounting the adsorption filter to the housing inner wall.
Since the adsorption filter and the element are separately mounted to the housing as mentioned above, the workability is not good. Furthermore, if the adsorption filter mounting means is a fitting means, a predetermined fitting clearance is naturally needed, so that the adsorption filter, after being mounted, may suffer rattling, which is a factor of noise. If the mounting means is a welding means, the rattling of the adsorption filter is eliminated, but the mounting operation becomes complicated. Furthermore, regardless of which one of a firm fitting means or a welding means is employed, it is difficult to separate the adsorption filter from the housing for the recycling of the air cleaner, or the like.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to improve workability by making it possible to mount two members, that is, an air cleaner element and an absorber member for absorbing fuel vapor, in a due state merely by mounting the air cleaner element within a housing of an air cleaner, and to simplify the mounting of the absorber member without allowing the rattling thereof, and to relatively facilitate the separation of the absorber member from the housing through the use of a tool or the like for the recycling of the air cleaner, or the like.
A first aspect of the invention is an air cleaner wherein an element for filtering intake air and an absorber member for absorbing fuel vapor are mounted. Within the housing, a stopper portion for tentatively attaching the absorber member and a seat portion capable of receiving the absorber member at a side opposite from the stopper portion are formed near a site where the element is mounted. The element or the absorber member has a presser portion that retains the absorber member in a state where the absorber member is pressed against the seat portion, when the element is mounted within the housing.
According to this construction, by tentatively attaching the fuel vapor absorber member within the housing through the use of the stopper portion and by, while maintaining the state, mounting the element to the housing, it is possible to mount the two members, that is, the element and the absorber member, in a due state. Therefore, the workability in mounting the two members improves. Furthermore, although the mounting of the absorber member is a simple operation of tentatively attaching the absorber member as mentioned above, the absorber member is retained in a state that allows no rattling after the mounting thereof is completed. For the recycling of the air cleaner or the like, the housing and the absorber member can be relatively easily separated from each other by using a tool or the like after the element is detached from the housing.
In the above-described aspect, the stopper portion may have a protruded shape having a size that allows the stopper portion to retain an outer peripheral portion of the absorber member to an inner wall of the housing to such a degree that the outer peripheral portion does not fall apart from the housing, and the seat portion may be an end portion of a rib extending on an inner wall of the housing substantially in a direction of a flow of the intake air.
Therefore, neither the stopper portion nor the seat portion increases the resistance against the flow of intake air within the housing. Hence, regardless of whether the absorber member is used, the housing and the like can be commonly used without degradations in the intake resistance characteristic and the filtering capability of the air cleaner.
Furthermore, in the above-described aspect, the presser portion of the absorber member or the element may have a rigidity corresponding to the seat portion of the housing.
Therefore, after the element is mounted, the absorber member is firmly secured by the seat portion and the presser portion, and the secured state is stable.